recommendation of Khiam center to the UPR :: Khiam Rehabilitation Center

recommendation of Khiam center to the UPR

Recomondations OF Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture
To the UPR 23rd SESSION in Geneva on November 2,2015-10-15
Human Rights Situation In Lebanon

1- Torture and Impunity

Recommendations
1- Establish a preventive mechanism for the Prevention of Torture(as required by OPCAT and ratified by Lebanon in 2008) and not integrating it into the National Plan for Human Rights (delay of 6 years).
2- Amend the national legislation to harmonize the definition of torture in domestic laws with one provided in the UN convention Torture.
3- Adopt a law criminalizing torture and punishing the perpetrators as demanded by the UN convention.
4- Submit the initial and periodic report to the Committee against Torture after a delay of 15 years.
5- Implement Article 14 of the Convention against Torture on rehabilitation and compensation for the victims.

2- Prisons and detention centers

Recommendations
1- Putting the prisons under the supervision of the Ministry of Justice as a matter of priority.
2- Close most of the Lebanese prisons which do not abide by international standards and are not suitable for human beings.
3- Speed up the judicial trials and put an end to pretrial detention.
4- Establish an independent complaints mechanism of prisoners.
5- Implement the 36 recommendations issued by the Committee against Torture in its report.
6- Publish the Lebanese government report on the Committee against Torture report
7- Amend the law to restrict the jurisdiction of the military court to the armed forces personnel only
8- Respect fair trial rights and release those who are arbitrarily detained
9- Modernize Lebanese prison law issued in 1949 to be compatible with the minimum standards of the United Nations for the Treatment of Prisoners.

3- Victims of Enforced Disappearance:
Recommendations
1- Ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
2- Ratify the decree of the National Commission to investigate the fate of the disappeared persons, and the draft law of the disappeared assigned to the parliament.
3- Consider the families of the disappeared as victims of torture, and develop psychological, social, and physical programs for their rehabilitation.
4- Preserve mass graves to help in any search for the truth later.
5- Establish an official institution for truth and justice.

4- The Death Penalty
A. Recommendation
1- Abolish the death penalty and ratify the second optional protocol to the ICCPR.
5- Dialogue with the stakeholders
Recommendations
1-Organize a serious dialogue with civil society organizations prior to the submission
of the national report and afterwards.
2-Establishment of an official body or a practical mechanism to follow coordination and recommendations.

6- Civil ,Political and Econonic Rights
Recommendations

1- Democratic electoral law based on relativity and outside the confessional registry
2- Formation of the National Commission to abolish sectarianism as the Taif Agreement stipulated
3- Adoption of a uniform civil code of personal status as a first step to a democratic and civil state and other persistent demands for the Palestinian and Lebanese civil community.
4- Adoption of an escalated series of ranks and wages for the employees and security forces
Lebanon is in a race between implementing some essential reforms in the political and sectarian system on one hand, and a civil war that will lead it to follow its Arabic sisters on the other hand.
5- Give priority to addressing the economic and social issues of citizens, garbage, electricity, water, unemployment, health etc ...
6- Approval of the longstanding demands of marginalized groups of people with special needs law 220/2000
7- Invite the Committee against Torture to investigate operations of repression and torture against demonstrators in Beirut from August 22 until October 8, 2015
8- The Lebanese government is required to respect the right to peaceful expression, assembly, and which is guaranteed on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant.

15/10/2015